It’s all about efficiency for Centria’s DAM

Centria is a leading global manufacturer of design and architectural wall paneling used in the construction industry. They’re on the cutting edge of architectural system building technology with a wide variety of products touting advanced thermal and moisture protection technology. Chelsea Rommes is the media and content coordinator at Centria and is the global admin of their Widen Collective site. They rely heavily on their digital asset management (DAM) system to collect images of newly-completed jobs and tag them with the proper metadata so they can be easily found and repurposed by their sales team.

When Chelsea shares what life was like before DAM, like many others, she talks about her computer desktop being full of folders containing loose files with no way to search and send. They used to send out CDs and hard copies, which isn’t a sustainable process as the company grows.

Centria’s initial use for the Widen Collective was to store product images and finished project images, but use has expanded into storing their design files, press releases, videos, PowerPoint presentations, and logos for dealer network and contracting partners. It’s been very impactful to have all of those tools in one place.

Centria has hundreds of different products that come in different orientations and colors. Before the Widen Collective, it took a sales person hours to find the exact image they wanted. Now, images can be found in minutes. There’s been such an increase in efficiency that they no longer need to replace some of the retiring marketing staff.

Centria feels like they have their own “little search engine” that allows them to drill down to exactly what they're looking for in minutes. “You can’t do that with a file folder system,” Chelsea said. She estimates that the DAM has reduced the amount of time she spent per job by 60 to 70 percent. “It’s made my life so much easier.”

Centria’s ad agencies have also gotten in on the fun. They’re able to go in and search for assets on their own. They can pull whatever they need without having to ask. When they’ve completed their project, they can simply upload the finished files to Centria’s DAM, and Chelsea can quickly release them for use by the sales team.

The Widen Collective isn’t just an image library. It goes beyond that and provides concrete data to illustrate the growth and success of the system and shows you how and where your assets are being used. This tracking ability gives Chelsea’s director the tools to not only monitor the system’s success, but to also be able to share it with leadership. They’re able to say they have over 20,000 assets in the DAM, and they’re able to push those to the salespeople in minutes. The system has grown immensely in just the few years they’ve had it.

Widen is known in the DAM industry as having the best customer service, and Chelsea agrees. She especially likes our online chat support. The Widen crew is available to quickly answer any questions she has, and she can still be doing something else in the background.

Chelsea doesn’t play around. She’s all about being efficient and reducing the amount of time she spends searching for and sending out files. The Widen Collective has proven to be an invaluable tool for her and for Centria’s marketing and sales teams. We look forward to watching her grow their system even more in the years to come.